Rusting pontoon washed up on Llanelli beach
A rusting pontoon weighing several tonnes has washed up on Llanelli beach. It broke free from heavy retaining anchor chains just 100 yards offshore in February. The pontoon was made by Spencer Davies Engineering and owned and installed by the former Llanelli Harbour Trust which ceased to exist when the Trusts lands were sold to the former Llanelli Borough Council in the early 1990s. The pontoon has been removed from the eastern end of Llanelli beach because of the danger of it being taken out to sea on imminent high tides where it could become a danger to boating in the estuary or shipping in the Atlantic. The metal pontoon was installed by the Trust 40 years ago and replaced others that had been constructed in wood when the Harbour Trust was formed circa 1890 and Llanelli harbour was handling up to 2,000 vast tonnage ships annually. Its purpose was to offer refuge to people stranded on high the sandbanks opposite Llanelli beach cut off from the land by the channel caused by the M...